A Food & Pastry Blog

Fun Facts About Oysters: A Geography of Oysters

I’ve just finished reading Rowan Jacobsen’s A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Oyster Eating in North America. It covers a history of oysters in this country, with very articulate descriptions of the different species and varieties, lists of good oyster bars and festivals and growers who ship direct, and all manner of oyster recipes. Here’s what I’ve learned:

-There are five species of oysters commercially cultivated in the U.S.: Kumamotos, Pacifics, Belons (also known as European Flats), Easterns and Olympias. Within those five species are numerous varieties of oysters. They’re often named for their place of origin but (unlike in the wine world) there is no strict naming system in place.-Their flavors tend to be either fruity and clean in taste, like Kumamotos and Pacifics, or briney and metallic, like Eastern, Belon and Olympia oysters. Belons are known as the “oyster-lovers oyster” because of their very distinctive briney and coppery flavor (which some find overwhelming).
-Like wine, they have very distinctive flavors, textures and shapes depending upon where and how they were raised.
-They can change gender.
-They process up to fifty gallons of ocean water a day through their shells.
-Live oysters ship really well: a number of growers harvest to order, and you’ll get them two days out of the water. At a restaurant, they may have been harvested a week before they’re served to you. But oysters don’t decompose the way fish or meats do—they’re still alive, after all. So even after a week they’ll be OK. They just won’t taste quite as fresh.